On January 1st of 2007 Jimmy, his sister, our friend Dave and I all set out in a Mazda Precidia to drive from Regina, SK to Waterloo, ON. Dave was attending the University of Waterloo for his Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering (I know what you’re all thinking, “Amy you have engineering & physics friends? Aren’t they too smart for you?” Well the answer is yes but, I am the “funny friend” who accidentally flashes them once and a while….so they let me stay). Anyway, Dave wanted his car in Waterloo so when he flew home for the holiday season he bought a one way ticket. As it turned out Evanescence was playing in Toronto around the same time he was going back so Jimmy, Alex and I hitched a ride and planned to take a bus from the ‘Loo to TO.
Rather than take the snow covered destitute Canadian highways from here to there we opted to take the US way which took us through various cities/states and helped us appreciate the smallness of our city. Our first overnight stop was in Minneapolis and it was 1:15 am on January 2nd, 2007 when we first arrived in the city. As we are driving around we see something awe inspiring – a White Castle. Our eyes all lit up and our stomachs kindly reminded us that we were starving.
Once inside the brightly lit fast food eatery we immediately stood out. The cashier knew we were not from around here as we were smiling and looking around to take in the whole experience like small children at a theme park. She asked us where we were from and we all hesitated to say “Regina” because Americans usually have no idea what that means. Saskatchewan is also of very little value so we simply state: “Canada”. She seems to be feeding off of our excitement so she’s eagerly explaining the entire menu to us and giving us various suggestions. Once we get our giant tray o’ boxes (I was kind of upset at the amount of waste that the White Castle chain uses) we go sit down and begin to inhale our food. While we are eating a young woman comes in with her very young son. She is talking very loudly on her cell phone and the boy is trying to get juice out of the drink machine. He’s pulling on her arm to get her attention so she attempts to get the juice while still talking on the phone. Then she pulls the phone away from her mouth and screams at the WC staff: “Ya’lls juice is jus’ watta!” I think I felt the English language die a little bit that night.
After WC we were in need of a pillow to plant our faces into for the night. We happened upon a Motel 8. We walk in the front door and there is a line up. What? It’s 2 a.m. Why is there a line up? The 20 something guy at the front is with a visibly underage female companion and is trying to rent a room. However he has apparently been banned from all Motel 8’s across North America. This leaves us unsettled, what could he have possibly done to be BANNED? To our right there are several business men sitting on benches waiting for a room and more people have come in behind us. This is quite the happening Motel.
“Next.”
“Hi, we need a room for one night please.”
“Credit Card, Driver’s license and ZIP Code.”
I start to tell him our POSTAL CODE and he stares at me blankly as if we suddenly no longer speak the same language.
“ZIP code please.”
“We are Canadian, we don’t have ZIP Codes - we have Postal Codes.”
He stares at me again. Then shakes his head and skips the entry all together. He hands me two room keys and shrugs me off. I hand Dave one of the keys and he heads off to the room to put his laptop away. The rest of us turn around to go outside to get our bags. Just as I am pushing open the door to leave Dave comes back around the corner and says in his scared/confused tone:
“Amy. What room number are we?”
“118”
“Come here please.”
I look at Jimmy with my eyebrow raised and then follow Dave to room 118. He opens the door and…the room is clearly in use. There are underpants and clothes all over the place, empty liquor bottles aaaand someone on the toilet making loud…uh…bathroom noises. Both Dave and I quickly back out of the doorway and let the door close. We exchange looks, alarmed at what we just saw/heard. I grab the key from his hand and march back to the front desk to tell the man he gave us a room in use. He tells us no, it is not. Then I ask him to follow me to see for himself. Apparently this seemed like too much work so he just gives us another set of keys. The room wasn't much to behold….I was glad I had my own pillow and blanket with me to wrap myself in. I put my headphones in to drown out the noise that carried in through the paper thin walls and as I closed my eyes I hoped the front desk would not hand out our key to another person looking to rent a room at the No Tell Motel.
The next morning Alex and I went out to the Breakfast room. On the TV was the morning news. The pretty anchor woman was going over the events of the evening. “The 5th murder of the year is still being investigated by police.” I turn to Alex and say “Isn’t it only January 2nd?
She says “Yep.”
“Okay then. Let’s get our ‘continental breakfast’ and get the hell out of this place.”
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